First a little story.
When I was somewhere around 12 years old, Grace and Jack gave me a coffee table sized book for Christmas. I can’t for the life of me remember what the book was specifically about but somewhere in it there was an article or chapter about Edgar Allen Poe. For some strange reason, while I was reading the article I found it absolutely amazing that Poe was a graduate of the US Military Academy. I felt compelled to immediately share this new found piece of information with Mom and Dad so I trotted into the kitchen and interrupted whatever conversation they were having with “Wow – did you know that Edgar Allen Poe went to West Point?”.
Mom and Dad thought this was absolutely hilarious and cracked up laughing. From then on, whenever I would come up with some off the wall “did you know?” trivia fact (which it seems I was wont to do), their standard reply would be “No – and we didn’t know that Edgar Allen Poe went to West Point either.”
I share this story with you for a reason. When I saw your photo of Lex and his umbrella hat I had an “Edgar Allen Poe” moment.
Did you know that Lou Brock, the Hall of Fame basestealer for the St Louis Cardinals, was the inventor of the umbrella hat?